Amidst all the excitement of Tuesday night's fantastic winning performance that saw local star Danny Ross reach the final sixteen of WIN Televisions blockbuster Talent show, 'The Voice', we caught up with both Danny by phone from Sydney while we had his brother Byron, who is Manager of one of Port's favourite watering holes, Watergate Bar and Lounge, in The Newsport offices.

Byron, in fact, had popped down to Sydney last Friday when the 'live' Showdown rounds were being recorded at the Fox Studios to be with the rest of the family, Danny's Mum, sister and husband.

"We arrived about 3pm but didn't actually get into the Family and Friends enclosure until about 6.30pm. It was pretty manic.  Danny had been there since 6am having to contend with media interviews, rehearsals, working on changes to musical arrangements and sorting out costumes etc.  It really is hard for the performers, so much to do"

Byron said "We got to meet the judges, Seal is a tall man, Delta is just gorgeous, Ricky has a magnetism all his own and the ladies just fawn all over him and Joel has a special sort of street charisma around him, he's very switched on.  The judges were really supportive.  I guess they know how hard standing up on that stage really is"

"We sat with the other contestants families and watched all of them perform.  Its a strange feeling wanting them to be great but not quite as great as Danny!"

"Danny has grown so much from this experience.  It's as if his voice has got bigger and his aura has expanded.  He's really let this experience give him the maximum potential to grow.  I don't think anyone realises how exposed you are during this process.  It's like walking naked down the main street.  But Danny seems to be thriving on it."

Danny explained, "Things happen so fast, when the result was announced last night (Tuesday), it was quite a shock because I think everyone had thought that Lyric (McFarland) would be the peoples choice and go straight through to the last sixteen.  So when Michael's (Stangel) name was read out, I thought if it's my name read out next or third I'm going to have to sing-off against Lyric and she has such a great voice. I was very pleased that Lyric had to sing first, it gave me a couple of minutes to compose myself."

About the peoples choice winner, Michael Stangel, Danny said, "It was amazing when I watched (Team Joel winner), Michael Stangel sing during his showdown performance.  It was like he had a golden glow around him, man!  I just had a feeling that his was going to be the winning performance. All I could do was give it everything I had to try to beat Lyric."

It looked like things were stacking up against Danny because his microphone did not kick in until well into the second line of his 'sing-off' song.  But the way he handled that hiccough, actually resonated with Judge Seal who commented at the end of his performance that, "Only a real artist stays in the zone and rides those kind of mix-ups"

Danny said he knew something was wrong but "Hey man, I was so far into the zone that you could have set a hand grenade off behind me and I would still have carried on singing".

A turning point for Danny Ross in the results show on Tuesday was the fact that Ricky Martin chose him when asked who to send through after Danny's 'sing-off' round with Lyric.  Up until now Ricky has stayed fairly quiet about Danny.  

Danny said "I was delighted to have been acknowledged by Ricky, it means a lot to me to win over the judges.  I hope to win over the voting public now.  Audiences have always meant the most to me.  To play music live is awesome but to do it and be appreciated by a live audience is almost magical"

Brother Byron explained that on the results night he had put the television on so he could watch the programme at the Watergate Restaurant and when all the diners found out it was his brother performing and then when Danny won through to the next round, it became a very big party indeed with Byron shouting the first round."

Danny is recording at the end of the week again for the next round and his performance will be broadcast on Monday 20th from 7.30pm on WIN Television.  The format of the show now sees four artists lost each week down to twelve, then eight until the final four sing in the final show.  So Danny must achieve the highest votes each week to be assured of staying in until the final show.

To vote for Danny just click here and visit The Voice website: http://www.thevoice.com.au